Fresh off the Family Day weekend, one fact rings true about the newest provincial holiday: British Columbian families are using the long weekend to explore the natural playground in their own backyard.
There’s an ongoing discussion to see the B.C. Family Day moved from the second to the third Monday in February. Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario celebrate Family Day on the third Monday, Manitoba celebrates Louis Riel Day and in the United States it’s Presidents’ Day.
An online petition, launched last year by Vancouver resident Andrew Johns, to see the provincial government bump the holiday by one week has over 18,000 digital signatures, so there’s clearly interest from the public to see Family Day moved. Many people advocate for the change as it would provide an added opportunity to visit family who live out-of-province between Christmas and Easter.
However, moving the holiday will also limit the ability of British Columbians to explore their own province during the holidays.
Yes, there’s certainly economic pressure on the government to have a separate holiday in B.C. as it gives back-to-back weekends for dollars to filter into the tourism industry, but businesses should never dictate when holidays are scheduled.
If the holiday were to be pushed one week ahead, the activities B.C. residents were able to enjoy would be taken away to a certain degree by out-of-province visitors.
Riding the chairlifts at Sun Peaks during the weekend, I met people from across the province. People from the Lower Mainland, the Fraser Valley, the Nicola Valley, the Okanagan and the Cariboo chatted with me and were thrilled to be spending their holiday weekend at a ski resort within close proximity to their homes.
Accommodations on the hill were nearly at capacity and Sun Peaks was not the only ski resort with an influx of local visitors. There were reports of lift line waits over an hour long in Whistler, Big White saw a record number of visitors, and 26 ski areas in B.C. offered half-priced lift tickets on Family Day. There’s clear evidence B.C. residents used the holiday to enjoy their home terrain.
B.C. doesn’t celebrate Family Day like the rest of Canada, but conforming to how everyone else celebrates the holiday doesn’t necessarily mean it will improve it.
Instead, British Columbia is the only province with its own holiday weekend during the winter. It’s another reason why the west is best.
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